How it works: The Replacement Theory

How does authoritarianism work? One dynamic is the replacement theory.

The Catholic birth rate in Northern Ireland was approximately double the Protestant birth rate—yet during the three decades prior to the march on Derry, the Catholic population had remained virtually static, because so many people had no choice but to leave.

Keefe, Patrick Radden. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (p. 14). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

With Catholic birth rates higher than Protestant, the “replacement theory” raised its ugly head fueling subjugation and discrimination in Northern Ireland as it had in Nazi Germany, in the United States, and today, once again in the United States with White Supremacism having been reawakened with the MAGA movement. The threatened dominant class practices rejection, exclusion, and exile.

This dynamic occurs repeatedly in human history as one group attempts to maintain control over perceived threatening others. Failing societies favor exclusion while thriving successful societies favor inclusion. The replacement theory is fanned by would be authoritarians to gain political power. It only temporarily works as the society they would govern becomes increasingly rigid, brittle, and then breaks down.